Obama’s Democratic Authoritarianism
He's bad – really bad – on civil liberties
He’s not closing Guantanamo, he’s continuing the "preventive detention" policy of the Bush administration under a new rubric ("prolonged detention"), he’s on board with military commissions ("reformed," of course) and the denial of habeas corpus – and last, but certainly not least, his supporters in Congress have launched a campaign to give him and his cabinet officials the power to close down the Internet in the name of "national security."
I won’t go on at length about the brazen hypocrisy and general slipperiness exhibited by Obama and his fans when it comes to key civil liberties issues such as these. Jack Goldsmith, former head of George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel, and Rachel Maddow, progressive commentator on MSNBC, have done a superlative job of that. Goldsmith, of course, notes the president’s turn on a dime with obvious approval, arguing that the Bush approach was haphazard and lacked any substantive legal basis, while Maddow is horrified that, instead of abolishing these Bush-era assaults on the Constitution, her former hero is intent on formalizing and "legalizing" them. Go here to see her deliver the kind of stinging rebuke to Obama and his administration that Rush Limbaugh and his fellow radio ranters could never hope to match.
Maddow strikes a powerful blow against Cheneyism-without-Cheney by pointing out that the president’s preventive detention policy – which claims for the U.S. government the right to hold anyone, including American citizens, indefinitely, without trial, without formal charges, and without telling anyone – is worse than anything Bush ever attempted in one important sense. The Bushian effort was secretive and strictly ad hoc; the Obamaites, however, are quite openly constructing what Obama calls "a new legal regime" to preside over this wholesale assault on the Constitution.
At least the Bush crowd had enough remnants of a moral sense to sneak around and try [.pdf] to hide their crimes against liberty and the rule of law. Although they tried to rationalize their actions with after-the-fact legal arguments, the effort seems to me rather halfhearted: they weren’t really all that concerned with legalizing their power grab. They just went ahead and did it, and damn the torpedoes.
The Obamaites, on the other hand, have a different style – but the substance is essentially the same, with the addition of a few minor tweaks and rhetorical flourishes. They want to bureaucratize and institutionalize the horrors of the past eight years and make what used to be unthinkable routine.
This Memorial Day should be devoted to reviving and refreshing the failing memory of the American people, or, at least, those millions who voted for Obama in hopes of a better day. Remember the campaign promises, the soaring rhetoric about "the rule of law" and our "constitutional liberties"? Remember this: "Gitmo. That’s an easy one: close it"? Remember the promise of "change"?
As for this last, well, yes, the Obama administration is indeed carrying out a sea change in the realm of civil liberties, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a continuation of the transformation effected by Team Bush and made possible by the post-9/11 hysteria, in which the leaders of both parties were caught up – and which they continue to stoke for political gain.
Witness Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid‘s assertion that the jailing of terrorist suspects in American prisons somehow represents a threat to this country’s security. Obama himself is not above this: in rationalizing his escalation of the Afghan war and occupation, he continually harks back to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as if they justified the decades-long occupation of Afghanistan and surrounding areas envisioned by his favored policy wonks.
The baddies, Obama avers, are "plotting to attack America" from their "safe havens" in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. Which raises the question: So the f**k what? How much of a "safe haven" do they need to "plot," anyway? Answer: A space no bigger than an apartment in Hamburg, Germany, or a small town on Florida’s Atlantic coast, where the 9/11 attacks were plotted and carried out.
The 9/11 attacks provided the neoconservatives with the opportunity they had been waiting for: as the Twin Towers came down, so did the traditional safeguards against tyranny that had been erected over the past 200 years by the Founders and their successors. The neocons, in effect, pulled off a coup d’état: as Bob Woodward has pointed out, their method was to set up "a separate government," with Cheney at its head, that did an end-run around the institutional safeguards built into the system. Bush usurped the constitutional lines of authority that acted as a rein on the unrestrained use of government power. Obama’s "reforms" will make that usurpation permanent.
Change? You bet.
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
I just have one thing to say about the recent arrest of four losers who were plotting to bomb New York-area synagogues: while the FBI was busy carefully setting up these would-be terrorists-without-a-clue, luring them into an improbable scheme involving Stinger missiles and in effect setting up a government-subsidized terrorist cell, how many al-Qaeda sleeper cells were going about their business undetected?
Now, don’t you feel safer already?
Read more by Justin Raimondo
- Palace Revolution – November 13th, 2012
- A Covert Affair:
Petraeus Caught in the Honeypot? – November 11th, 2012 - Next Stop: Syria – November 8th, 2012
- Election 2012: Ron Paul’s Revenge! – November 6th, 2012
- The Mystery Behind the Benghazi Attack – November 4th, 2012
Duncan__Idaho
May 25th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Well, it was an FBI informant who Supplied the explosives for the first WTC "terrorist" bombing. They screwed that one up…or maybe they were just planting the seed to help sell the 9/11 mythology.
It's really not even in the vicinity of being remotely debatable: watch the videos and observe the buildings Explode UPWARD and OUTWARD and ejecting three and four ton chunks of steel some six hundred feet LATERALLY while supposedly "pancaking" DOWNWARD. It's so blatantly obvious that i can no longer tolerate anyone who believes the official version.
As for the empty-headed empty suit Obamabot, I am sick and tired of hearing how "brilliant" he is! He was a third rate legal scholar who taught an ENTRY level law course, certainly no freaking "professor" as the simpletons in the media keep repeating.
Obama is leaps and bounds more evil and destructive than Cheney-Bush could ever have hoped to be. Talk about your Manchurian Candidate! The grinning bobble-head has only to deliver the most Draconian edicts wrapped in purloined cliches and the benighted sheople just nod in the affirmative. It's sickening.
The Cybersecurity Act comes quickly on the heels of the Cyber "Bullying" Act, which would make it a FELONY to hurt someone's feelings on the internet. Both of these bills will SAIL through.
All of these things, along with the "continuity of government" provisions executive-ordered into existence by the previous melonhead-in-chief, are setting you up for a Planned future "event".
I'm hoping they hold off for another four years – long enough for me to move somewhere that isn't worth nuking.
WHITE HOUSE SALESMAN « DUCKPOND
May 25th, 2009 at 4:15 am
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bogi666
May 25th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Obama promised transparency, this is what he meant.Cheney was the President of the government inside the government which consists of the Pentagon and the spy agencies and it operates without accountability or budgetary constraints. The government inside the government is an appointed government and answers to no one. This is why I voted against Obama and voted for Bob Barr.
bogi666
May 25th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
you may already live there, Idaho. Good comments, thanks
Obama’s Democratic Authoritarianism by Justin Raimondo — Antiwar.com « Gnostalgia
May 25th, 2009 at 7:20 am
[...] via Obama’s Democratic Authoritarianism by Justin Raimondo — Antiwar.com. [...]
wadosy
May 25th, 2009 at 8:13 am
justin says…. "while the FBI was busy carefully setting up these would-be terrorists-without-a-clue, luring them into an improbable scheme involving Stinger missiles and in effect setting up a government-subsidized terrorist cell, how many al-Qaeda sleeper cells were going about their business undetected?
"Now, don’t you feel safer already?"
.
it could never be, in a million years, that the FBI is so desperate for terrorists that they've got to manufacture their own.
or are we supposed to believe that, after eight years of steadily eroding privacy rights, the FBI has been unable to find your fearsome "al-Qaeda sleeper cells"?
that's where you continuallly cross-foot yourself, isnt it…? …by clinging to the notion that al-qaeda staged 9/11.
but i spose it's understandable… this is a commercial operation, isnt it? …so you gotta do what you gotta do.
Make Them Accountable / Media & Politics (Memorial Day Edition)
May 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
[...] Obama’s Democratic Authoritarianism (by Justin Raimondo at AntiWar.com) This Memorial Day should be devoted to reviving and refreshing the failing memory of the American people, or, at least, those millions who voted for Obama in hopes of a better day. Remember the campaign promises, the soaring rhetoric about “the rule of law” and our “constitutional liberties”? Remember this: “Gitmo. That’s an easy one: close it”? Remember the promise of “change”? As for this last, well, yes, the Obama administration is indeed carrying out a sea change in the realm of civil liberties, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a continuation of the transformation effected by Team Bush and made possible by the post-9/11 hysteria, in which the leaders of both parties were caught up – and which they continue to stoke for political gain. [...]
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May 25th, 2009 at 11:01 am
[...] Obama’s Democratic Authoritarianism – When Do The Protesters Hit The Streets? Published May 25, 2009 Uncategorized 0 Comments Tags: Authoritarian, democrat, Guantanamo, hypocrite, National Security, Obama, Politics, protest A smart blog post reports – [...]
Duncan__Idaho
May 25th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
My theory is that the "security state" began quite early in US history…about the time of the False Flag of a Mexican "attack" the US used to justify the occupation of Nevada, California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Texas. That's pretty much half of the US today. Hopefully the "illegals" will take it back in the next decade or two.
And the Security State became formalized and codified with the National Security Act of 1947.
BTW, i'm not in Idaho, i'm in Toronto The name is from Dune by Frank Herbert. But will be moving to Venezuela…probably…so long as Hugo get's re-elected, or someone Like Him moves in. Cuba and the Russian Black Sea coast are options as well.
Via con dios
Terrorism arrests: snitch, sting, then controversy — will to truth
May 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
[...] source – scroll down to bottom [...]
Obama’s Democratic Authoritarianism | NWOTruth
May 25th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
[...] Antiwar [...]
wadosy
May 25th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
these invasions of privacy are wildly successful, which explains why the FBI has to manufacture its own terrorists, then bust them accompanied by weeks of 24/7 media hysteria.
…but despite all the data mining, they still cant find al qaeda.
…so it becomes necessary to ask ourselves: who’s the government really afraid of?
.
nevermind.
the situation’s under control.
we manufacture terrorists, who are blamed for crimes we commit to justify our project, then we torture our ersatz terrorists into confessing to our crimes.
it works like a charm… except for the dawning suspicion that the whole thing’s a crock…
…which explains why massive data mining is necessary.
.
it’s the cold civil war, dont you know?
RickR30
May 26th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Conservatives didn't care when Cheney-Wolfowitz trampled the consitution. So it should be no surprise that liberals are just as indifferent when Obama-Emmanuelle destroy it, er, reformulate it.
I'd be interesting to know who wrote that Obama speech. Since it contradicts itself from one paragraph to the next, it wouldn't surprise me if this is in part Obama's work. The rumors of his intelligence may be greately exaggerated. Someone once told me years ago that she really liked Obama because his speeches didn't make sense!
I'm just waiting to hear "intelligence" that the four losers were financed by Iran and thus Iran finances and harbors terrorists and that Iran represents an existential thread to the planet since there are synagogues everywhere.
Duncan__Idaho
May 26th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Most likely the Messiah himself inked that garbage. Seeing as how he was, at best, a third rate lecturer in Introductory Law – NOT a "professor" as the media shills would have you believe – one should not be surprised by the wholesale plagiarism of feel-good Ma and Pa Kettle cliches that abound in his idiom. He is a freaking RAT.
Empty suit, empty (bobble) head.
At least with Shrub you KNEW he was a Moron. With this asshat, most of the "progressives" have been thoroughly duped.
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May 26th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
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